Everything you need to know about an incident response plan.

As of 2020, the average cost of a single data breach across all industries worldwide stood at nearly 4 million U.S. dollars. 

As cybercriminals become more skilled, the threat of digital attacks continues to rise. An incident response describes the process to handle a data breach or cyberattack by an organization. It also includes how an organization manages the consequences of the attack or breach termed the 'incident.' 

The goal of any cybersecurity team is to ensure that the damage, recovery on time, and the cost is minimal or none. 

What is an incident response plan?

An incident response plan is a detailed guideline of security policies and procedures. The plan is used as a reference to identify, alert, contain, and eliminate a cybersecurity breach. 

In the case of incident response, it details all the steps that should occur in each phase of the incident response. Every organization must keep the document updated with the guidelines outlining communication plans, roles and responsibilities, and standardized response protocols. 

Additionally, it's advisable to specify the teams, employees, or leaders responsible for managing the overall incident response initiative and those tasked with taking each action specified in the incident response plan.

The goal is to enable an organization to quickly detect and halt attacks, minimizing damage and preventing future attacks.

The aim is to ensure no ambiguity over language or any of the terms. Common terms in the IRP include :

1. Event - This includes a change in system settings, status, or communication. E.g.,- server requests, permissions updates, or data deletion.

2. Alert - A notification that is triggered by an event. This can be helpful for suspicious or day-to-day circumstances that need your attention. E.g., the alert could mean that the storage space is running low or using an unused port. 

3. Incident - Finally, an incident could put your entire system at risk. For example, theft of credentials like the Yahoo hack, which affected more than 3 billion accounts. 

Who will handle incident response plans?

Typically, organizations have a cyber incident response team (CIRT) or Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). They consist of security and general IT staff and members of the legal, human resources, and public relations departments. 

Just like the magic quadrant of SOAR, Gartner delves deep into the roles and responsibilities of the CIRT. They describe it as "is responsible for responding to security breaches, viruses, and other potentially catastrophic incidents in enterprises that face significant security risks. In addition to technical specialists capable of dealing with specific threats, it should include experts who can guide enterprise executives on appropriate communication in the wake of such incidents." 

The key responsibility of your CSIRT is to prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents. They are actively involved in researching threats, creating policies and procedures, and training end-users in cybersecurity best practices.

What is incident response, and team models?

Depending upon the need of your organization, there are three different models of CSIRT that you can apply :

1. Central - The team consists of a centralized body that manages the organization's incident response.

2. Distributed - For larger organizations, it may be best to have multiple teams that exist and coordinate efforts when needed. Typically, each unit is responsible for a specific location, department, or particular part of the IT infrastructure. 

3. Coordinated - A command centre or knowledge base with a central team is established for the other distributed teams. The central team is responsible for monitoring systems and alerting or assisting distributed teams as needed. 

Do I need incident response automation?

With data breaches and cyber-attacks, it is essential that there is an effective response to the problem in minimal time, or there could be fatal consequences. 

However, alerts can often be missed or caught after a significant amount of time. Automation of incident responses can prevent oversight or delay. Some of the benefits of incident response automation include :

1. Triage alerts quickly and then reports incidents based on priority. 

2. Compile a comprehensive report of relevant data for further investigation if required. 

3. Launching incident response tasks and processes as per the playbook. This includes isolating affected areas or blocking IP addresses. 

What is an incident response playbook?

A common method to automate incident responses is to create playbooks. They can be understood as a guideline or script that security solutions or team members follow or initiate. They have clearly defined steps that need to be taken to prevent significant damage in minimal time. 

Playbooks can be manual incident responses that highlight those responsible for taking action and determine steps and processes. Alternatively, companies may choose programmatic scripts that integrate with the tech stack. In the case of an incident, alerts are triggered by the system, and incidents are identified. The system then can initiate the script and automatically perform the predefined actions. 

When creating an incident response playbook, make sure to include the following steps : 

1. Initiating condition - This refers to the event that triggers the playbook to run. It can be the trigger of an alert, an incident identification threshold, or some other event.

2. Mandatory steps - This refers to the actual process and actions that need to be taken, including triage, identification, analysis, containment, or removal.  

3. End state - This refers to the last stage of the playbook depending upon your goal after an incident. This could mean resetting passwords, authorizing permissions, or taking away permissions from nonessential personas. 

What are Incident response services?

Incident response (IR) services are can replace or supplement in-house teams and offer a higher level of expertise than is available in-house. They provide 24/7 monitoring and incident response to possible data breaches and cyberattacks. Here is why your organization should invest in an incident response service :

• They help you review IT systems and develop plans suited to your specific needs.

• They can monitor security events, identify incidents, and classify threats based on priority.

• They can help with the initial response that can assist in-house teams or even perform initial steps as per the playbook to control the damage.  

• They can conduct root cause analysis and provide feedback on response efforts and effectiveness.

Do you need an incident response provider?

Securaa is a trusted partner focusing on a versatile and data-driven approach to deliver unified threat monitoring and incident response solutions.

We are your partners for effective security management without learning scripting or complex operations. If you want to safeguard your company with the best cybersecurity solution, contact the experts at Securaa now!